Between Darkness and the Light - Paul Mitchener

I am happy to be today's stop on the blog tour for Between Darkness and the Light. Read on for a guest post from the author, Paul Mitchener and also his cocktail recommendation!

Henry has no idea that he is anything other than a normal, slightly lazy, teenager or that his mother is not even human. After a fight with his mother he spends all day walking around and ends up in the forest where he meets a couple of very strange characters. After this he soon finds out a lot more than he ever expected. I really liked the character of Bert, one of the guardians. He reminded me a bit of Hagrid, telling Harry that he's a wizard! I felt like this book was at least a third longer than it needed to be, but it was interesting enough to keep me reading.

Here, Paul talks about his main protagonist:

My main protagonist (Henry) is a young and bored teenager, who quickly learns that there is more to this world than he could have ever imagined. At first, he’s like any other boy of his age but through a series of events he learns to grow up fast. Whenever I wrote about Henry I couldn’t help but think back to my own teenaged years and his relationship with Bree reminded me of how I felt when I met my first love, excited but also uncertain of his own feeling. Henry starts off as an insecure teenager, unsure of himself and the world around him, but quickly become stronger, wiser and more assertive as the story line progresses, and at the end of the novel, Henry is no longer a teenager but had become a man that is no longer afraid to stand up for what he believes, a man that those around him and those that love had come to admire. One of the main things I like about Henry is that he is a likeable character which most young adults would be able to relate to, but above all, I feel that he is a believable character.

Paul's cocktail recommendation is a Brandy Collins:
50 ml Brandy, 25 ml Squeezed Lemon Juice, 15 ml Sugar Syrup, 15 ml Soda Water, Maraschino Cherry, Lemon Slice. Mix the brandy, lemon juice and sugar syrup in a tall glass with ice. Top up with soda water, garnish with a maraschino cherry and a lemon slice and serve.